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The Controlled Decline of Viking-Ruled Dorestad

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The Controlled Decline of Viking-Ruled Dorestad WINNER OF THE MAGNUS MAGNUSSON ESSAY PRIZE (2014) The Controlled Decline of Viking-Ruled Dorestad Christian Cooijmans* In a dream I saw the Sun soaring over the earth, fleeing from the north, followed by dreadful clouds. In its flight it passed me by and disappeared from sight, allowing darkness to cover all places along the coast. Large scores of Northmen are coming, bringing war and unimaginable destruction with them, leaving this friendly land bereft of life.1 FOREBODING prophecies like this one, attributed to early-ninth-century Frisian missionary Liudger, reflect worried attitudes apparent in numerous contemporary ecclesiastical sources from north-western Europe. Like many other areas surrounding the North Sea, Frisia was repeatedly overwhelmed by foreign marauders during the ninth century. As elsewhere, these attacks were largely opportunistic in nature, focusing exclusively on wealthy and vulnerable targets. One such target was Dorestad, a thriving focal point of interregional trade situated on a junction of several rivers, constituting Frisia’s foremost commercial centre up to the mid-ninth century. The later ninth century, however, witnessed a reversal in Dorestad’s fortunes as the settlement declined and disappeared within several decades. Systematic archaeological excavation at the site began during the 1960s and covered an area of over thirty-five hectares, providing physical insights into Dorestad’s origins, pinnacle and ultimate decline.2 Substantial amounts of research have since increasingly unearthed the settlement’s cultural, political and * Christian is a PhD Candidate at the University of Edinburgh, where his current research focuses on the politico-economic contextualisation of Viking activity within the Low Countries. 1 Translated by the author from Sint Liudger, 15. 2 Van Es and Verwers 2009, 9-13; Willemsen 2012, 66. 32 The Controlled Decline of Viking-Ruled Dorestad commercial role on the edge of the Frankish realm.3 Several hypotheses regarding Dorestad’s eventual disappearance have been put forward, the most popular of which exclusively blames destructive Viking incursions. However, no explanation has thus far proven itself to be wholly sustainable. This paper will re-examine these theories before presenting an alternative, in which a framework of cultural, political and economic factors is considered to explain the settlement’s gradual decline. The Beginning of the End Before becoming subject to Viking aggression during the 830s, Dorestad peerlessly dominated Frisia’s commercial landscape, serving as a gateway between the Carolingian Rhinelands, Anglo-Saxon England and the Scandinavian north.4 With innumerable merchants exchanging goods, silver and ideas at the emporium, its wealth and prestige made it a prime target of Viking incursion. The initial attack of 834, recorded in the Annales Bertiniani, began as […] a fleet of Danes came to Frisia and laid waste a part of it. From there, they came by way of Utrecht to the emporium called Dorestad and destroyed everything. They slaughtered some people, took others away captive, and burned the surrounding region.5 The settlement appears to have lacked most defensive capabilities, leaving it unprepared and overwhelmed by Danish invaders.6 The incursion probably yielded a significant pay-off, as the annals indicate that Vikings returned no fewer than three times during the three subsequent summers, when they ‘devastated Dorestad and Frisia’.7 3 Most prominent is the work of Wim van Es, who has published on Dorestad’s archaeological aspects for over thirty years, and Simon Coupland, who has extensively mapped and interpreted the settlement’s numismatic output. Van Es 1990, 151-153; Coupland 2010, 95-96 4 Local archaeological evidence indicates that Rhenish pottery, which had for centuries made its way north-west through the Low Countries, was still abundantly present in the emporium at this time. See Van Es and Verwers 1994, 184-186. In addition, numerous finds of the locally-issued ‘temple’-coinage of Louis the Pious (820s-830s) indicate wide distribution patterns across northern Europe, see Coupland 2010, 97. Ninth-century imitations of this coinage, minted at Haithabu and Ribe, specifically denote Dorestad’s continued economic influence in Scandinavia, seemingly unaffected by the initial Danish attack on Frisia that took place in 810. Malmer 2007, 22. 5 Annals of St-Bertin, 30. 6 Although Dorestad may have originally developed from an earlier settlement surrounding the former Roman castellum Levefanum, it is debatable whether the fort itself was still being used for defensive purposes following the fifth century. See Van Es and Verwers 2010, 19-20. 7 Annals of St-Bertin, 35. After the 837 attack, Dorestad remained a prominent target; the annals indicate that Scandinavians set out for another strike during the following year, only to be thwarted by disastrous weather. Annals of St-Bertin, 39. 33 Northern Studies, vol. 47 Intermittent rebuilding efforts could not prevent a subsequent decline in local commerce during the 840s. Reduced finds of mid-ninth-century coins from the emporium, representing a waning silver influx, indicate that this decline was gradual, taking several decades to extinguish Dorestad’s commercial liveliness.8 Frisian merchants were still frequenting the site during this period, and it is speculated that Carolingian coinage looted by Vikings may have subsequently returned into circulation through friendly exchanges at the emporium.9 Emperor Lothar, like his father Louis the Pious, still issued coinage at Dorestad’s official Carolingian mint during the 840s, albeit in significantly reduced amounts.10 Annalistic sources indicate that the Danes then held sway over Dorestad from around 850, apparently having been granted the area as a benefice for their service to Lothar and his brothers in their rebellion against Louis.11 The settlement’s already deteriorating economy did not seem to benefit from Danish authority, as more and more merchants appear to have abandoned Dorestad for better prospects elsewhere.12 The historical record is silent following a final Scandinavian attack on Dorestad in 863, its fate during the late 860s and 870s still subject to speculation. The complete absence of coinage of Lothar II and Charles the Bald, the dominant legal tender for most of this period, suggests the discontinuation of all economic activity at the site.13 A number of principal causes or a combination thereof have been theorised to have led to the decline and eventual downfall of Dorestad as a supraregional port of commerce. Most popularly and widely named as the main and often only cause of the emporium’s demise are the Viking attacks of the 830s and subsequent attacks up to 863. Numerous scholars assert 8 Coupland 2010, 96. 9 Willemsen 2004, 74. 10 Coupland 2002, 226. 11 The notion of Frisian raids serving as an apparatus of internal Carolingian hostility is provided by the Annales Bertiniani, in which Lothar is described as conspiring with the Danes to ‘damage [his] father’s interests and the furtherance of his own’. See Annals of St-Bertin, 51. Nithard’s Historiae (840s) corroborates these events, describing Lothar calling upon ‘the Norsemen to help him’ and allowing them to plunder and rule over Christians. See Frankish Annals, 167. This intra-dynastic conflict was not resolved until the Treaty of Verdun of 843 carved up the Empire into three separate kingdoms. 12 Van Es and Verwers 1980, 299. The Danish occupation itself left few traces at Dorestad; even the limited amount of objects possibly attributable to Scandinavian rulers, predominantly jewellery and weaponry, may just as well have reached Dorestad through earlier trade. For a description of the objects, see Willemsen 2004, 66-74. 13 Coupland 2010, 97. Van Es suggests that the emporium had been reduced to an agrarian settlement of limited significance by the late-ninth century (See Van Es 1994, 115). An Ottonian charter from 948, renewing the possessions of the Utrecht bishopric, includes Dorestad as a villa ‘now called Wijk’, a name it retained ever since. See Oorkondenboek Sticht Utrecht, 115. 34 The Controlled Decline of Viking-Ruled Dorestad that Dorestad’s potent economic infrastructure, the result of centuries of intermediate trade between the Rhinelands and the North Sea Region, was entirely disrupted by the Scandinavian episode.14 These authors refer mainly to the annalistic corpus in support of their assessments, but often disregard these monastic sources’ hyperbolic tendencies to disfavour the Danes as an uncivilised people that ‘worshipped demons’.15 Instead, it is feasible that the returned attacks on the emporium in fact imply that it was repeatedly rebuilt and in continuous operation despite slowly depreciating economically. Other scholars point to different reasons for Dorestad’s decline: as little archaeological evidence of destruction layers has been found, it has been argued that the movements of the adjacent Crooked Rhine were ultimately responsible for the emporium’s downfall.16 The river seems to have steadily shifted eastwards throughout the settlement’s lifespan, and is thought to have moved as much as 200 metres by the late-ninth century.17 Several phases of causeway construction, bridging the increasing distance between navigable water and solid ground over the former riverbed, have been identified during the 1970s. These structures, either jetties or dams made of wood and earth, may have additionally supported both dwellings and workshops.18 Although the
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